Today’s #toysoldieraday are a pair of 28mm Gallowglasses from Antedeluvian miniatures. Gallowglasses were Scots/Irish mercenaries who moved between Ireland and Scotland between 1200(ish) and 1602.

#Warmongers #History #Irish #Irishhistory #LockdownLeisureLeague

They were big lads, clad in mail and armed with their trademark big swords and axes. They also used bows, firearms and Irish throwing darts. The chap on the left has a sheaf of these at his belt. You can see some video on them here.

The gallowglasses were descendants of Norse settlers who came to Scotland in the tenth century. They integrated well and were known as the “Foreigners who spoke Gaelic”. The first record of gallowglass service was in 1259, when Aedh Ó Conchobair, King of Connacht, received a/

dowry of 160 Scottish warriors from the daughter of Dubhghall mac Ruaidhri, the King of the Hebrides. More gallowglass septs (family groups) moved to Ireland in the aftermath of Scottish defeats at the hands of the Plantagenets. UCC are cataloguing them.
http://galloglass.ucc.ie 

If the figures look familiar it’s because you may recognise them from an Albrecht Duhrer illustration from 1521, depicting Irish soldiers. The lads on the right are Kern, lightly armed skirmishers who excelled at the raiding warfare endemic to 16th cent Ireland.

Gallowglasses were elite troops and often acted as bodyguards to local magnates. They fewer ties to the locality and their primary loyalty was therefore to their Lord. They were trained and organised by a Constabal. Each gallowglass would be accompanied by two boys/bearers.

These bearers carried provisions and kit and the three were called a “sparre”. Edmund Spenser (author of The Fairie Queen) described them as “...very valiant and hardy, for the most part great endurers of cold, labour...active and strong of hand, very great scorners of death”.

The Twilight of the Gallowglasses was at Kinsale in 1602, when an Anglo-Irish army defeated an Irish-Spanish army in open battle. This negated the Irish advantage in guerrilla warfare and concluded the Tudor conquest of Ireland. Without the Gaelic Lords that hired them/

/the Gallowglasses passed into memory.

Lord knows when I’ll do another #toysoldieraday, perhaps something a little more contemporary next time.